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Denmark tells migrants: Don’t come here

Ad placed in Lebanese newspapers lists several factors that would make the country an undesirable destination

A group of migrants, mainly from Syria, walk along a highway in Denmark on Monday. They intend to reach Sweden and seek asylum there. (SCANPIX DENMARK / REUTERS)

By Adam TaylorThe Washington Post

Mon., Sept. 7, 2015

WASHINGTON—The Danish government has placed an advertisement in a number of newspapers in Lebanon, which carries an unmistakable message: Don’t come to Denmark.

The advertisement lists a number of factors that would make Denmark an undesirable destination for refugees, including one recent change to legislation that would reduce social benefits to arriving refugees by 50 per cent. Pointedly, it notes that anyone hoping to gain permanent residence in Denmark would have to learn Danish to receive permanent residency.

Arabic and English versions of the advertisement, placed by Denmark’s Ministry of Immigration, Integration and Housing, ran in four newspapers on Monday.

Denmark has taken a stricter stance on immigration since the centre-right Liberal Party formed a minority government in June. While Germany and Sweden have embraced larger numbers of refugees over the past year, Denmark has cut back, imposing laws designed to discourage migrants from travelling to the country, including a severe cut to the benefits offered to refugees.

In July, Integration Minister Inger Stojberg had promised to run advertisements in foreign newspapers about the changes in Danish benefits to refugees. “The advertisements must contain sobering information about the halving of benefits and other constraints we are going to adopt,” Stojberg told Danish newspaper DR. “This kind of information spreads.”

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Denmark, like Britain, has an exemption from European Union-wide asylum regulations that aim to redistribute refugees. However, the opposition Danish People’s Party (DPP) has called for further measures, including potentially leaving Europe’s border-control-free Schengen Zone.

The DPP is a powerful player in Danish politics at the moment: It became the third largest party in Denmark after June’s election and provides key support for the Liberal Party. The party has a clear anti-immigration agenda. Last month, one DPP politician argued that the government should step in to regulate the Danish language, warning that the “pizza Danish” spoken by immigrants in fast-food restaurants was spreading.

On Monday, some in Denmark criticized the advertisements, including some members of the Liberal Party. “I am very, very disappointed,” Michael Gatten, a member of Copenhagen’s municipal council, told Jyllands-Posten. “It is a repulsive way of acting.”

“This must be the worst timing for an ad in the history of the world,” Uffe Elbæk, the leader of the left-leaning Alternative Party, wrote on Twitter.

In a post published on Facebook, Stojberg explained the motivation behind the advertisements. “We simply cannot keep up with the current influx,” the minister wrote, adding that it was important not only to tighten laws but to let potential migrants know. The post has been “liked” more than 6,000 times as of late Monday morning.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a call to host refugees from Syria and elsewhere, saying Sunday that although Israel is “not indifferent to the human tragedy of the refugees,” it is not in a position to take them in.

Netanyahu was responding to Israeli liberals led by opposition leader Isaac Herzog, who said Jewish history demands that the nation show compassion. Having themselves felt the “world’s silence,” Herzog said, “Jews cannot remain indifferent” to the carnage in Syria and the refugees’ plight.

In responding, Netanyahu emphasized Israel’s medical care for more than 1,000 injured Syrians, as well as efforts to aid African nations and thus stem the flow of migrants. However, he said that Israel’s “lack of demographic and geographic depth” requires controlling its borders against both “illegal migrants and terrorism.”

With files from The Los Angeles Times

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